BREAKING NEWSDonald Trump Election Interference Case Paused by Judge at Special Counsel's Request Following 2024 Presidential Election
Donald Trump's trials are paused.
The judge in former President Donald Trump's federal election interference case has paused all upcoming deadlines in the case, as special counsel Jack Smith filed a motion Friday, November 8 — just two days after Trump won the 2024 election.
Smith and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are currently engaged in discussions regarding the best approach to wind down the legal cases involving the president-elect.
Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the decision to pause the case stems from the DOJ's long-standing policy that prevents a sitting president from facing criminal prosecution while in office.
This policy has prompted ongoing talks between Smith and the Justice Department on how to proceed with both the election interference case and another case involving classified documents following Trump's election victory on November 6.
Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the case, has been carefully deliberating on the appropriate course of action in light of the Supreme Court's recent immunity decision.
Jack Smith asked to pause the trials.
Smith told Judge Chutkan that vacating the schedule of remaining pretrial deadlines would give his team “time to assess this unprecedented circumstance” of Trump’s electoral victory “and determine the appropriate course going forward consistent with Department of Justice policy.”
“By December 2, 2024, the Government will file a status report or otherwise inform the Court of the result of its deliberations,” Smith wrote in a filing Friday.
Chutkan supported that deadline in her order vacating the other deadlines.
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Donald Trump was indicted four times.
The president-elect is charged in the case before Chutkan with crimes related to his efforts to overturn his loss to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election, when he was still the sitting president.
Trump was also charged by Smith in federal court in Florida with crimes related to keeping classified government records at Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House in early 2021, and with obstructing efforts by officials to recover the documents.
The case was dismissed in July by a Trump appointed judge, Aileen Cannon, who claimed Smith’s appointment as special counsel by the DOJ violated the appointments clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Smith has appealed Cannon's dismissal to the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
Donald Trump was found guilty of 34 criminal charges.
Trump also faced charges in Georgia state court in Atlanta for racketeering and other crimes related to his attempt to reverse Biden’s White House win in 2020. However, he is not expected to stand trial in that case while serving as president, even though the DOJ has no control over that prosecution, which was filed by the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office.
The president-elect also is scheduled to be sentenced on November 26 in New York state court in Manhattan for nearly three dozen criminal counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
According to ABC News, Trump could face potential prison time, but would not be expected to serve any such sentence while he is president.
